Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/263

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Now for the evidence of the monuments themselves.

The weights found by Sir A. H. Layard fall into two classes, (a) those in the shape of Lions, which are made of bronze, and (b) those in the shape of Ducks, which are of stone^[1]. "The bronze Lions are for the most part furnished with a handle on the back of the animal, and are generally inscribed with a double legend, one in cuneiform characters, the other in Aramaic." The Ducks which are inscribed have a legend in cuneiform characters only. These inscriptions contain not only the name of the king of Babylon or Assyria in whose reign they were made, but likewise a statement of the number of the minas or fractions of a mina which each weight originally represented. As these weights were found in the ancient palace some have thought that they were possibly official standards of weight deposited from time to time in the royal palaces^[2]. This seems at least to be implied by the inscriptions on some of them, such as those of the largest and most ancient of the Duck weights, which run as follows:

(1) 'The palace of Irta-Merodach, King of Babylon [circ. B.C. 1050], 30 Manahs^[3].'

Wt., 15060·5 grammes, yielding a Mina of 502 gram.

(2) 'Thirty Manahs of Nabu-suma-libur, King of Assyria,' [date unknown].

Wt., 14589 gram.

A small portion of this weight is broken off; if this is

↑ Is it possible that the so-called Ducks are only degraded forms of bull-head weights? The ears and horns were dropped as being inconvenient (see bull-head weight, p. 283), and at a later time when the tradition of their origin had been lost, the shapeless lump was adorned with a bird's head to serve as a handle. All the large weights from Nineveh are without any head; and it is but very rarely even on the small haematite weights that the duck's head is found fully formed.
↑ As no better selection of these weights could be made than that of Mr Head, I have followed his description. Cf. R. S. Poole, in Madden's Jewish Coinage, p. 261 seqq., and the Report of the Warden of the Standards, 1874-5, for a full account of these weights.
↑ The Manah is of course the Meneh so familiar from Belshazzar's vision, mene, mene tekel upharsin (Daniel v. 25), which the best scholars follow M. Clermont-Ganneau (Journal Asiatique, 1886) in interpreting as a mina, a mina, a shekel, and the parts of a shekel.

[1] Is it possible that the so-called Ducks are only degraded forms of bull-head weights? The ears and horns were dropped as being inconvenient (see bull-head weight, p. 283), and at a later time when the tradition of their origin had been lost, the shapeless lump was adorned with a bird's head to serve as a handle. All the large weights from Nineveh are without any head; and it is but very rarely even on the small haematite weights that the duck's head is found fully formed.

[2] As no better selection of these weights could be made than that of Mr Head, I have followed his description. Cf. R. S. Poole, in Madden's Jewish Coinage, p. 261 seqq., and the Report of the Warden of the Standards, 1874-5, for a full account of these weights.

[3] The Manah is of course the Meneh so familiar from Belshazzar's vision, mene, mene tekel upharsin (Daniel v. 25), which the best scholars follow M. Clermont-Ganneau (Journal Asiatique, 1886) in interpreting as a mina, a mina, a shekel, and the parts of a shekel.

[1]

[2]

[3]